Well, just back from the doctor's office and I have been cleared for take-off. At 8:55 AM Tuesday morning, I am leavin' on a jet plane for Belize.Can I just say, "Woo hoo!"
I hope to get an update from "our gal on the ground in Belize" tonight which I will post here before I leave. Even as I type this, construction has begun in the town to build that playground for the kiddos in San Antonio.
How exciting is that?
13 comments:
I am really very pleased that you are well enough to travel. Be good to yourself down there -- hear? I am praying for a great experience, no more back pains, and a relaxed and joyous return. (Ok, I will add world peace...)
In the few moments your inital post was up, I read it. I found another reason to pray for someone. I hope she is able to reconcile her various situations. That she is now fodder for the bloghaters is most unfortunate.
Have fun, out there!
FWIW
jimB
The really, really sad piece is that it was brought on by one of her own - someone I'm certain she considers a friend. So nasty. So unnecessary.
And, can I say it? So unChristian.
As for myself, I have learned well another hard lesson about the sophistication and power of the blogosphere. It's one I'm not soon apt to forget.
Well said.
After having read a bit about that priest's situation, I'll have to say that, as a parent, I'm more than a bit scared for her & her children, too. I certainly hope friends from her parish & diocese are checking up on them regularly. Esp. qualified professionals.
Good luck in Belize. Our parish has done mission trips down there as well, and we were blessed by them.
Glad to hear you're able to join the group. Have a wonderful and rewarding time.
Don't think to much about those with "a heart that plots wicked schemes, feet that run swiftly to do evil, the false witness who utters lies, and he who sows discord among brothers."
You have all sorts of good stuff to do.
I am a good friend of the Kennedys and I would just like to pray for you for what you have done is not what the Bible says as what we as christians do. I know that you are with the fallen away church of the Bible and I as God to please forgive you and show you His mercy as he has me. I am now through His grace and the Kennedy's help going back to school at 50 years of age and if it is God's will I will be an ordained pastor. The one thing they have taught me is that I am still a sinner and I need to look at the complete Bible and not just the parts that make me feel good and happy with. I hope that you can get back to preaching the whole Bible and understand all that he proclaims. Just so you know I was once into homosexual relation but I chose to stop and live the way God intended all of us to. I have three children and am proud of all even though they do not follow me or Christ right now. I do not know if you will post this but at the least you will read it and I hope in that God will instill the Holy Spirit to help you. A man that is trying to learn and follow Christ all the way to the CROSS
Thank you for this, Karen, and especially for your very respectful tone.
Apparently, in my original post, I did not keep the identity of her blog anonymous. I did not keep that first draft, but apparently Google does. I do apologize for that, confident at least, that is an exercise for my own integrity.
I fear that, with this crowd, nothing will appease their lust for blood. All I can do is sit back and let the whole world see and know them by the fruits of their works - their hell-bent path to destroy anything that does not follow what they believe to be "God's plan and will for us."
Thankfully, God has much for me to do than to worry about all of this.
I'm off to Belize, God willing. It's an enormous blessing.
Dear Elizabeth,
This is a lesson for all of us. Your blog title reminds us that what we say in the innermost room will be shouted from the rooftops, so it is important to be as careful with ones speech as possible. I've been caught out a few times saying in public things that would be better not said at all.
There is all the more reason for prudence now --- there are adversaries (they describe themselves as such, don't they?) out there prowling about like roaring lions looking for anything they can find to embarrass or otherwise make-look-bad those with whom they disagree. They seem to derive a considerable amount of energy from anger. I think they spend entirely too much of their time in this form of the "listening process."
And I admit to a degree of similar energy-stoking from visits to SFiF from time to time. In the past I've dropped in over there probably once or twice a week, just to see what is going on, and for the occasional sliver of "real news" that appears there. I have even, on occasion, had a reasonable conversation in those forums; but think I shall probably make my visits less frequent in future, for my own spiritual well-being. Anger and ire are not good places to seek energy; and I still think God has called me to build up and not to tear down.
And I know God calls you to that too -- and you will do so. So cherish and support the little ones; take care of yourself in Belize. I've got a whole flock of Belizians in my parish and I will share news of your trip with them next Sunday. Safe travels under God's wings...
Thank you, Tobias, for your kind and gracious words.
I have adjusted my apology, following the KISS principle.
It's one I intend to follow with stricter adhearance in the days to come.
Elizabeth,
Life has some pretty hard lessons to learn and as most of us are just learning about blogsphere, there are many lessons out there. I, too, have posted things that I have later deleted or edited.
I cannot critisize for I don't know how many times I have done things and then had to sit back and take the flack. It is part of the process of learning. That being said, although they will never take admit their responsibility in this, those at Stand Firm in Faith are being far more harmful than your original post ever was. By continuing the discussion, they are perpetuating and making something public that they are critisizing for being public in the first place. You have had the sense to relook at what has been done and to try and make reparations, they continue what was done in the mistaken belief that it is right. How can it be right to continue to make public that which they said should never be public in the first place? It would be different if they had just made reference to your blog but they, themselves, published what they considered harmful. I would venture a guess that under it all is not a concern for the priest in question but rather a gleeful chance to do some harm to someone with whom they are uncomfortable.
I will admit that I was uncomfortable even reading the revised post and that I certainly agree with your decision to adhere to the KISS rule in your apology. However, you have removed the pertinent parts that the other site is keeping in the public eye and I certainly think that shows who has more integrity in this matter. My heart is sorrowing over what is happening at the other major blog that is perpetuating this. If they are upset they should have just left it alone and only a few people would know about the person you mentioned. Now it is much more public, thanks to their actions, and that cannot be helpful to the one they on whose behalf they claim to be indignent.
Love and Prayers,
Ann Marie
What Tobias said.
Have a blessed trip, Elizabeth.
Your decision to issue an apology and to revise your post shows that you have much more integrity than (and I hate to be blunt, but there is no other way to put it) the lowlifes at Stand Firm. Certainly, when Greg Griffith, the same person who quoted your blog posting there, quoted most of one of my blog postings a few months ago and used that as a basis of smearing my character, there was no subsequent apology forthcoming from him. On the contrary, he insistently defended his behavior. You have shown great class, and you outshine that individual by an order of magnitude.
The thing is, Elizabeth, in their response, you got them to tell a secret, as well: how much they hate, how much they are willing to dissemble, prevaricate and smear, how little "Christian charity" they demonstrate, how little they comprehend life as a decent, honorable and forthright person.
They're in the light, now, and it's too late for them.
I refuse to read SFiF and have not read what I know is such righteous indignation at that site. I know the couple, attended their ordination and installations and used to be in the same clericus with them until I was attacked by them and their cohort.
I mourn for the directions that they have chosen and the damage that they have done to their parish. Many have left and have been displaced by fundamentalists who get engergized by the kind of righteous indignation that they peddle.
Yep, we do make mistakes. It is what makes us human and what makes us in such need of a God who loves us in the midst of them. But without mistakes we never learn. Hopefully, through this we learn--all of us who communicate by blog. Even if the apology is never accepted, the act is forgiven and we live in the faith of that. Deo gratias!
Go to Belize and do all the good works that can be done in gratitude to a loving God and a whole mess of us out here in blogoland who love you.
Lauren
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